Manufactures of hand held devices, including those of mobile communication devices, are increasingly adding functionality to their devices. For example, many mobile communication devices shipped today include cameras. Image capturing devices, such as still and digital video cameras, are being increasingly incorporated into handheld devices such as wireless communication devices. Users may capture still or video images on their wireless communication devices and transmit a file to a recipient via a network.
A still camera and a video camera in a single handheld device such as a mobile communication device may be used separately. That is, a video camera for video conferencing may be on the same surface as a display and a keypad including navigation input keys and therefore point in the direction of the user while the user views the display. The still camera may point away from the back of the device. In this manner, when taking a still photograph, the user may view on the display a digitally reproduced image of the user's object, much like the view screen of a stand alone digital camera. In a mobile communication device the still and video cameras may point in opposite directions from the device.
Since a mobile communication device can transmit data captured from a video camera in real-time to a recipient, it has many uses. However, when two video cameras would be more useful than one, a mobile communication device having a single video camera may not fill a user's needs in certain use cases. It would be advantageous if there were single device that included two video cameras that may be useful in a number of use-cases unique to mobile communication devices with a capability that cannot be achieved with single and separate and remote video cameras.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.